LUCKY SEVERSON: School kids from Houston having a field day -- home schooled kids, that is.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #1: It's an opportunity for home schoolers to get together and socialize and have fun with each other.
SEVERSON: Twenty years ago, home schooling was often something parents did behind closed doors because it was frowned upon and even illegal in many states. Bruce Shortt is a home schooler in Houston.
BRUCE SHORTT (Attorney and Author, THE HARSH TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS): Twenty years ago it was hard. I mean, you not only had to worry about, you know, the police showing up on your doorstep, but you really had to do a lot of work to prepare a curriculum and so on. People who are home schooling today are doing it because they see children flourishing academically, socially, and spiritually.SEVERSON: Today, there are about 300,000 home schoolers just in Texas. Nationwide the number is estimated at close to two million. Robert Reich is a home schooling expert and critic at Stanford .
Professor ROBERT REICH (Stanford University): I think home schooling has changed in some dramatic ways. Whereas 10 years ago I think there were basically two kinds of home schoolers: the liberal wing of the home schooling populations and then the more conservative or religiously motivated group of the home school movement. But nowadays you've got your average sort of suburbanite who thinks they can do a better job with their kid in the home through a home school.
SEVERSON: Still the bulk of parents pull their kids out of public schools for reasons having very much to do with religion. Some are leading an organized effort to persuade churches, including Southern Baptists and the Presbyterian Church in America, to have their members pull their kids out of public schools and put them in private or home schools.
Jube Dankworth is national director of HomeSchooling Family To Family, a home teacher herself.
JUBE DANKWORTH (National Director, HomeSchooling Family to Family): They're telling the churches that, you know, God really says that you're in charge of your child's education, and you're supposed to bring the child up in the admonition of the Lord.
SEVERSON: Bruce Shortt is the author of THE HARSH TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS. He home teaches his three sons, with a little help. Hugh, for instance, learned Mandarin from a Mandarin teacher, German from a German teacher -- the same with Spanish. He says we need a system of private and home schooling education without government involvement.Mr. SHORTT: The goal is to encourage the development of a new system of Christian public education, public in the sense that it's open to anybody but controlled by parents, not unions, politician, and bureaucrats.
SEVERSON: In this suburban home, larger than some rural school houses, home schooling parents rely on each other, as they often do, to judge the debating among their kids.
UNIDENTIFIED TEENAGE GIRL #1 (speaking during debate): …and they don't solve the problem and I would strongly urge a negative ballot at the end of today's debate. Thank you.
SEVERSON: The average cost of home schooling nationwide is about $600, and some end up spending considerably more for books and tutors and coaches. All agree it's a full time commitment often requiring one of the parents to stay home.
TERESA STRACK (Home Schooler): I have got a nice collection of old readers that I just love. Some of them are ones I had myself when I was in school. And we have our library organized according to grades, so my kids can start off here in pre-school, in first grade, second grade, third grade, fourth grade, fifth grade -- all the way on over to 12th grade.
SEVERSON: More often than not, the home library will include a large section of Christian books.
RENA SUMBERA (Home Schooler): I believe in the story of Genesis. That's what I've been taught, that's what I believe, and that's what I want my kids to believe.SEVERSON: Rena Sumbera schools her two children at home in an upscale Houston neighborhood because…
Ms. SUMBERA: …we are Christian. That was not introduced in the school, will never be introduced into the school. And it was something that was important to us.
YOSHIKA LOWE (Home Schooler, tutoring her son): You are going to convert ten-thirds into sixths.SEVERSON: Yoshika Lowe has a degree in science but teaches her three kids at home, in part because she wants them to learn that there is an alternative to evolution.
Ms. LOWE: We don't believe that humans came from animals, because that would mean that they weren't made in the image of God.
NATHAN LOWE (Student): I believe that evolution is relatively far fetched and that creationism makes sense. SEVERSON: The U.S. ranks number 17 among industrialized nations in math and science and trails in other basics. In the inner city, where home schooling parent Voddie Baucham grew up, the ranking would be even more dismal.
Prof. REICH: The worry I have about those claims is that it's based on research that has been done almost exclusively by home school advocacy organizations, and so it's not an accident that very little of the research on home schooling has not appeared in peer-reviewed academic scholarly journals. 
SEVERSON: According to a home schooling sponsored survey, the vast majority of graduates say they enjoyed the experience. Most of the kids attending the conservative Christian Patrick Henry College in Virginia have been home schooled. In fact, Patrick Henry was founded by the Home Schooling Legal Defense Association, which has grown to be a powerful voice in the country.
J. MICHAEL SMITH (President, Home School Legal Defense Association): Since 1990 we've seen over 30 state legislatures that have passed home schooling laws, and for those to be successful, the home schoolers have had to be involved. They can't afford to pay for lobbyists, so they simply have to do it with hard work and numbers.
